How do I check if a column exists in SQL Server?

Question

How do I check if a column exists in SQL Server 2000?

Answer 1

IF EXISTS ( SELECT * FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS
WHERE  TABLE_NAME='tablename' AND COLUMN_NAME='columname' )

Answer 2

If col_length('table_name','column_name') is null
    select 0 as Present
ELSE
    select 1 as Present

Present will be 0, is there is no column_name present in table_name , otherwise 1

@CMS: I don't think that 'INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS' have information about every table in DB. Because this didn't worked for me. But my answer did worked.

Answer 3

In query analyzer, select the Database that contains the table in which you need to check if the field exists or not and run the query below.

SELECT count(*) AS [Column Exists] 
FROM SYSOBJECTS  
INNER JOIN SYSCOLUMNS ON SYSOBJECTS.ID = SYSCOLUMNS.ID 
WHERE 
 SYSOBJECTS.NAME = 'myTable' 
 AND SYSCOLUMNS.NAME = 'Myfield'

Answer 4

This should do nicely:

if COLUMNPROPERTY(object_id('table_name'), 'column_name', 'ColumnId') is null
  print 'doesn\'t exist'
else
  print 'exists'

Answer 5

I don't know if this script will work in sqlserver 2000, but in 2008 works:

SELECT COLUMNS.*
FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS COLUMNS, INFORMATION_SCHEMA.TABLES TABLES
WHERE COLUMNS.TABLE_NAME=TABLES.TABLE_NAME AND UPPER(COLUMNS.COLUMN_NAME)=UPPER('column_name')